Throughout our culture there is a range of non-human entities, from androids to zombies, that represent our impulse to create or control life. Avatars exist in this continuum, as do mannequins and so, in my exploration of the relationship between people and avatars, it seemed like a good idea to put them together.

I was wondering about these associations when I watched (not for the first time) the music video for Billy Idol’s, “Dancing with Myself”.  With its apocalyptic imagery of zombies, skeletons and a ventriloquist’s dummy, I realized that the song was asking similar questions to mine. Since I used the title Dancing with Myself for another work, I tweaked it a bit to sound like it was translated from a Mohawk phrase.